There are many different types of free-weight exercises for body building. In a gym for professional weight lifters and body builders, there is often a separate piece of exercise equipment for each type of major exercise.
For example, there is a fiat padded bench with an overhead barbell weight rack for performing a normal, horizontal bench-press exercise, which is important for overall chest muscle development. Then there is an inclined bench for performing inclined bench-press exercises, which focuses the muscle development in a specific portion of the chest musculature. The inclined bench has a head board (for back support) and a toe board (a seat), both of which are fixed in an inclined position. The head board is preferably positioned at an angle of about 45.degree. to 60.degree. to the horizontal. Some gyms have more than one fixed incline bench, for example, one having a head board inclined at about 45.degree. and another having a head board inclined at about 60.degree. to the floor. Most preferably, the toe board is inclined perpendicularly to the incline of the head board so that a person performing the inclined bench-press exercise does not slide off the bench. Because the toe board of a fixed incline bench is not adjustable, the inclined bench press apparatus cannot be adjusted for the horizontal bench-press exercise.
In some apparatus, attempts have been made to combine the horizontal bench-press apparatus and the inclined bench-press apparatus by making the angle of the head board adjustable, but the angle of the toe board is not. See for example, the apparatuses of the types shown in the following patents: U.S. Pat. No. 4,749,190 issued to Homer F. Jennings on Jun. 7, 1988; U.S. Pat. No. 4,645,196 issued to Larry L. Christie on Feb. 24, 1987; U.S. Pat. No. 5,160,305 issued to Paul Lin on Nov. 3, 1992; and French Patent No. 2627-090. This solution is unsatisfactory because if the toe board is not inclined, preferably perpendicularly to the head board, a person performing an inclined bench-press exercise on the bench tends to slide off the horizontal toe board.
In other combined apparatuses, the head board and the toe board must be adjusted separately. See for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,447 issued to Fredric Snyderman and Robert H. Russell on Dec. 3, 1991, U.S. Pat. No. 5,082,259 issued to Karl Gonzalez on Jan. 21, 1992, and German Patent No. 3423-837 issued to Heinz Kettler. The adjustments of these combined benches is tedious and troublesome, which tends to discourage the full use of the equipment. That making adjustments would discourage a weight lifter might seem surprising, but the exercises require tremendous effort and focused concentration; a weight lifter wants to concentrate on lifting weights, not wasting precious time and concentration on making tedious adjustments in the equipment. Furthermore, even where the toe board is adjustable, in the apparatuses disclosed in these patents the toe board is not adjustable at a proper angle, which most preferably should be positioned perpendicular to the inclined head board.
Some of the other exercises that are very important are the dead lift, where a barbell is brought from the floor up to the waist, and the "power cling," where a barbell is brought up to the chest. For the purposes of this description, a "dead-lift type exercise" is any exercise that involves lifting the dead weight of a barbell up from floor level while the lifter is in a standing or squaring position. The most difficult stage of these exercises is starting the movement of the barbell upward from floor level. The most difficult stage, or weak stage, of an exercise can limit the weight a person can work with, which limits the benefits of the exercise for the muscle groups used during stronger stages of the exercise.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,334 issued to Karl I. Mullen on May 23, 1989, shows a power cage intended to help lifters through the weak points of a dead lift type exercise so that the proper amount of weight can be carried through the strong point of the lift. But there are many drawbacks to the power cage shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,334. One problem with the power cage is that to be effective, it must be enormous in size, at least about 4 feet by 4 feet at the base and 6 feet tall for performing a power cling exercise, for example. Another problem with the power cage is that when a barbell is placed on the spring supported movable beams, any slight deviation from the horizontal will cause the barbell to roll forward or backward in the cage. This will cause one end of the beams to move downward under the shifting weight of the barbell which counterbalances one spring, while the other end moves up under the force of the other expanding spring. This will invariably cause the beams of the apparatus to deviate from the horizontal and bind on the vertical guide bars. The same binding of the apparatus to the vertical guide bars will also result if the barbell on the downward stroke strikes anything other than the center of the beams. Yet another drawback of the power cage shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,832,334 is that the shock of dropping a heavy weight on the beams is absorbed by the springs, which are not vertically restrained. The springs could bow outward from the vertical, perhaps even break, thus, creating a danger to nearby persons.
For maximum benefit, a body-building workout requires taking the muscles to the limit of complete exhaustion, which is felt as intense muscle pain, the so-called point of muscle "burn." To achieve complete muscle exhaustion and maximum muscle burn, an exercise is usually performed in several "sets" of repeated lifts. For example, a person selects a maximum weight for an exercise, such as a bench press, for which he or she can perform three sets the bench presses of eight to twelve repetitions per set. Particularly toward the end of the last set of the exercises, the muscle becomes so fatigued and the burn so intense that a person can run the risk of becoming unable to raise the barbell to the rack one last time, thereby essentially becoming pinned under the weight. Thus, weight lifters should usually use a "spotter", who is a second person standing ready to assist with the exercise. But sometimes a spotter is not available, particularly in a home-gym situation. Thus, the rack should also serve a minimal safety function.
Another problem with conventional home-gym equipment is that it tends to be unsteady, sometimes even bordering on the dangerous when loaded with heavy weight. To achieve the required stability, professional equipment is usually extremely heavy, but this solution is not cost effective or appropriate for home gym purposes.
Thus, there is a long-felt need for exercise equipment that solves these and other problems with the previously known equipment.